Kicking off Saturday’s UFC Vegas 87 card at the Apex in Las Vegas, lightweight Loik Radzhabov welcomed Contender Series alum Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady to the octagon.
A former PFL athlete with nine fights under that promotion’s banner, Radzhabov was 1-1 to start his UFC career. Al-Selwady, meanwhile, had held gold in Desert Force, Brave CF, and Fury FC before arriving on Dana White’s Contender Series last year.
Early on, Al-Selwady was attacking with leg kicks and going to the body. Al-Selwady was using a lot of movement and feints while letting his kicks go. Radzhabov got respect landing a right hand and putting Al-Selwady against the cage. Al-Selwady ended up reversing and getting space. Radzhabov pressed forward and seemed to hurt Al-Selwady with a right hand. He sat Al-Selwady down and landed a barrage of punches. Al-Selwady was surviving but kept getting taken down as he was getting back up. Eventually, they got back to their feet and Radzhabov timed another right hand off a kick. With seconds left Al-Selwady dropped Radzhabov briefly with a right of his own. An action-packed opening round.
Round two started and Radzhabov came forward with a right hand and a knee. Al-Selwady was uncomfortable every time Radzhabov came forward. He shot in for a takedown but Radzhabov shrugged it off. Al-Selwady was still moving a lot and did a great gob of attacking the lead leg. A lot of lateral movement from Al-Selwady seemed to slow Radzhabov a bit deep in round two. Still defensively sound stopping the takedown from Al-Selwady. Al-Selwady was in on a few takedowns but eventually got one when he timed a double leg with a minute left. Radzhabov was able to get back to his feet in the final seconds.
Going into the final round there was a good chance the fight was one-to-one. Right away it was Radzhabov in on a takedown but Al-Selwady defended. Al-Selwady responded with a takedown but Radzhabov bounced right back up. Radzhabov turned the heat up and landed a huge right hand over the top planting Al-Selwady! The ref let it go a little too long as Al-Selwady took some unanswered punches that ended in a stoppage.
Loik Radzhabov was the underdog coming into the fight, and definitely proved the oddsmakers wrong at UFC Vegas 87.
Loik Radzhabov def. Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady by KO (punches), round 3, 0:49
